Blizzard Entertainment has had a rich history games along with technological innovation by way of freaking awesome cinematics. Nowadays they put their money into 3 core franchises, Diablo being one of them. Diablo 3 was released back in 2012 which marked a full 12 years since it's previous iteration. Its expansion, Reaper of Souls added on more content and a full extra Act to the main Story when it was released 2 years ago. For this review I managed to play through the Ultimate Evil Edition which packs in both the original and its expansion. Defined as an action RPG with elements of dungeon crawling, Diablo 3 has you take a pick at one of 6 classes as you face off against the Lord of Terror Diablo alonside the other Prime Evils. For the purposes of this Review, I went along in the Wizard class. Guess it's cause I'm mostly a fan of magic users when it comes to these kinds of games. Though I did love my Paladin in my WoW days.
To my surprise, Diablo's setup/controls work well with the PS4 controller. Each class has a variety of spells and abilities which you unlock as you level up. These can then be developed even further through assigning each spell with a rune. Runes further expand on the ability for example, one spell allows you to summon a Hydra from the ground which spits out projectiles. The Hydra runes can transform it into one made of flame, ice, lightning, and a few more to give you guys an idea. Pretty much every button aside from L2 can be mapped to a skill of your choice. Staple RPG elements include stats, inventory, armor, HP/MP (Arcane Power in the Wizard's case) all make an appearance here.
Aside from the abilities/spells, you have your primary attack on the X button. I was also surprised as to how quick you progress and level up through the story. As of this writing, I'm at max level with my Wizard, 70 being the magic number. Your class I imagine also has some restrictions as to what type of clothing/weapons can be equipped as I recall not being able to use certain items. Unless I'm mistaken and it has to do with the level requirement to use them. The weapon and armor designs themselves are pretty amazing, I always get excited when I get a new piece for a certain area that's known to be shown in the game. I've also made upsetting grunts when said piece, while better than what I have, looks dumb.
Every Act has a home base of sorts where you can go to sell unwanted items along with Artisans to set you up with enchantments, gems for socketing and armor forging. The graphical display is very appealing and definitely shows the gothic horror vibes that Diablo is known for. I felt right at home with the game since I've had experience with the Starter Edition in addition to WoW. When you clear the campaign, that's when the game opens up into Adventure Mode where you can explore places you didn't before. Bounties will pop up in certain areas and change daily. There's about 4-5 bounties per Act area. Upon completing all of them, you're rewarded with a cache of items, gold and lots of XP. Nephalem Rifts are where I spend my time playing though. These are gauntlets that allow you to face enemies until they're all defeated. They give out pretty fantastic gear and gems to socket.
Difficulty levels range from Normal all the way to what's known as Torment. Also, multiplayer is available to Playstation Plus owners and that increases both the rarity of the loot, and the strength of the foes that stand in your way. I'm not in anyway a Diablo expert but the story was easy to follow around. Throughout the game there's also little book tomes that further expand the lore. This includes info like what happened in the previous games. The music is chilling in some areas, actually scratch that in all of them. Which perfectly sets the mood, some of the enemies are grotesque and last minute explode their insides out in hopes to kill you. Also I should note that dodging with the right analog stick is pretty useful. Various buffs appear in the form of spires, along with you getting a kill-streak every 10 enemies or so. This ends up giving you much more XP as a bonus.
Overall, I was very pleased with my introduction to the Diablo franchise. The Ultimate Evil Edition gives you the complete package of the game up to this point and time. With what I heard of it having a high replay value, I definitely imagine myself coming back to it with a brand new class chosen.
Should you Play this Game?
Yes! Even if you're not familiar with the Diablo franchise, The Ultimate Evil Edition is addicting and fun with its loot hoarding and monster slaying gameplay. The dungeons are intricately designed as are the armor and weapons. The visuals are very dark and moody when being compared to the various locations in WoW. Plus with multiple classes to choose from, you're bound to have a different play experience with each one. Very high replay value here!
